In ancient days the Jina shramansanghas varied in their routine practice, though they were similar in their metaphysical beliefs, One of these sanghas was known as the DravidSangha and its follower shrawakas were called as Dravids amongst the Aryans of Aryakhand. They were not inferior to any other Jina followers. Later, when Shaivism came up and also under Shankaracharya’s influence, many shrawakas and shramanas were compelled to convert by force and violence to Shaivism. Like the other shraman sanghas, the Dravid group too was broken off from its root culture. The majority of tribals and sarakas (i.e. a misnomer of shravakas) are the results of such atrocities. They ran to remote jungles to survive and save their culture. Shramanas and shrawakas of those days were the occupants of Aryakhand throughout. Hence they were Aryans, while the Dravids amongst them were the followers of the Dravid sangha. As the shramans through their code of conduct, continued to carry viharas beyond the four months of the rainy season (chaturmasas) and two months of both summers and winters wherever they went, their cultural remains can be seen marked as symbols on rocks, shown here.

With the rise of Buddhism and royal patronage to it by the later Mauryan and other kings, further damage was caused to the integrity of the Dravid heritage. But the remains are richly spread all over in the Southern part of India, what shows that the heritage now long forgotten was existing abundantly there. The school of the Dravid approach of deciphering the Indus script hence appears to be fundamentally right, but its applications referring to a much later age fail to decipher the Indus texts. Dr. I. Mahadevan of Chennai follows the School of the Dravid application, supporting his stand partially because Dravid was a Jain sangha in the ancient past, whose followers naturally carried the culture, but does not drive them away as a separate Dravid component of the Jain community. The Nainar, Mudliar, Chettiar etc. were all Jain communities before becoming Shaivites when they felt that they were driven away from under the Jain umbrella. Tamil Nadu caves and rock beds evidence not only that Jainism flourished in South India, but also reveal Indus remains there as a rich but neglected heritage which carries information in it of their Jain influence in the past. Later Buddhist influence pushed them further into the jungles and outskirts.